Blogging & Twitter Tips for Researchers and other Professionals
transcript
1. Philip H. Mai, M.A., J.D. Research & Communications
Manager (@phmai) Dalhousie Social Media Lab Projects &
Communications Manager Norman Newman Centre for Entrepreneurship
Knowledge Translation in the Age of Social Media: How to Build and
Maintain an Effective Scholarly & Professional Presence
2. Outline Reasons Why Scholars & Other Professionals Use
Social Media How to Use Twitter How to set up a Twitter profile Who
to follow What to tweet about? Some Common Twitter Questions
Blogging How to set up your own blog? What to blog about Why you
should consider blogging? Things to keep in mind
3. Twitter: @phmai SocialMediaLab.ca * Based on 315 respondents
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Discovering new funding Garnering mass
media attention Publishing findings Maintaining professional image
Soliciting advice from peers Collaborating with other Making new
research contacts Promoting current work/research Discovering new
ideas or Following other researchers' work Keeping up to date with
topics Wired Academia: Social Media and Scholars SSHRC Funded
Project 2010-2013 (Select) Research Questions Why are some scholars
using social media? What are the perceived utility with using
social media among scholarly users?
4. Twitter: @phmai Recap: Top 3 Reasons Why Scholars Use Social
Media 1. Information gathering, 2. A mixture of information
dissemination and social benefits People who tend to use social
media to promote their research are also likely to use it to make
new research & professional contacts. 3. Collaboration
5. Outline Reasons Why Scholars & Other Professionals Use
Social Media How to Use Twitter How to set up a Twitter profile Who
to follow What to tweet about? Some Common Twitter Questions
Blogging How to set up your own blog? What to blog about Why you
should consider blogging? Things to keep in mind
6. Go to twitter.com to set up an account
7. What to put in my profile? Your picture Use a pic that is
clear, smiling, welcoming, no sun glasses Your areas of expertise
Are you a medical expert? Do you have a professional degree? List
them. Inject your personality It is what makes you unique and set
you apart Include your interests - Hobbies and experiences. Listing
them will most likely attract followers who share the same
interests. Embrace adjectives Instead of researcher say senior
researcher, experienced researcher, etc Keep it short You only have
160 characters. Use short phrases, not full sentences. Add a link
or 2 Add your personal website and/or your work website
8. Twitter Profile Example #1 Why it works: Its witty and
humorous. Hillary needs no introduction. But modifiers like
pantsuit aficionado allows us to see a new side of Hillary. It made
her sounds funny and human.
9. Twitter Profile Example #2 Why it works: WYSIWYG - What you
see is what you get!
10. Twitter Profile Example #3 Why it works:
Keywords-friendly!
11. Who to follow? Who you follow determines what you will see
in your twitter information stream! @CMAJ_News - Canadian Medical
Association Journal @Pharmacy_Today - The monthly patient care
magazine of the American Pharmacists Association. @PharmacyPodcast
- Podcast Dedicated to #Pharmacist & #Pharmacy Profession.
@UFCWRx - The #UFCW Professional Division serves UFCW #Pharmacists
@OntPharmacists - The Ontario Pharmacists Association @FIPCongress
- This is the official International Pharmaceutical Federation
@bmj_latest - BMJ - British Medical Journal @harvardmed - Harvard
Medical School @BrighamWomens - Brigham and Women's Hospital
@BCMedicalJrnl - The BC Medical Journal @SunnybrookHSC - Sunnybrook
Health Sciences Centre @nytimeswell NYT Health Reporter Tara
Parker-Pope Official NYT Acc. @taraparkerpope - NYT Health Reporter
Tara Parker-Pope Personal Acc. @CarlaKJohnson - AP Health Care
& Medical Research Reporter @AKECassels - Researcher/
Journalist focusing on pharmaceuticals, medical screening
@DougSalzwedel UBC Medical Research Librarian
12. What to tweet about? A useful link/resource youve found -
news article, an upcoming event, a new resource. If your followers
find it useful they might pass it on, introducing you to more
followers. Reply/respond to another persons tweet - Twitter is a
social medium. Develop relationships with people & have a real
conversation. Retweet - share interesting tweets from other people
to your followers Tweet a photo -show something interesting you
have seen Tweet a live event conference, seminars etc Tweet a quote
- someone elses or one of your own. Heard/read/thought of something
interesting or profound ? Tweet it! Ask a question/take an
impromptu survey crowdsourcing the solution. Somebody out there has
the answer! Initiate a call to action - Twitter is great for
organizing events and causes. (ex. Egypt! Ukraines, Tweet about
your new blog post
13. Some Common Twitter Questions What is the best time to
tweet? 7-10 am- Commute 1-3 pm - After lunch 4-6pm - Before going
home 8-10pm - After dinner 11-12am Before bed Use twitter analytic
tools like follwerwonk.com or socialbro Is it OK to unfollow
someone? (Twitter = weak ties) When should I block someone? What is
a # (hashtag)? (ex. #Pharmacists, #immunizations)
14. Outline Reasons Why Scholars & Other Professionals Use
Social Media How to Use Twitter How to set up a Twitter profile Who
to follow What to tweet about? Some Common Twitter Questions
Blogging How to set up your own blog? What to blog about Why you
should consider blogging? Things to keep in mind
15. Go to wordpress.com to create your own personal
blog/website
16. Get Started on wordpress.com
17. Create a Wordpress website(s) with GoDaddy Website
Builder
18. Other Blog Publishing Services to Consider Ghost Typepad
Tumblr Blogger
19. What to blog about? React to current developments in your
field Describe and reflect your own research or area of interest
Publicise your own publications and those of your peers Inform your
community about an upcoming event/talk and other activities Create
a profile of people and researchers in your own group Talk about an
upcoming conference you are attending
20. Why you should consider blogging? Increase your engagement
with your subject area / academic peers Build personal reputation
Gain global impact Help you to reflect Provides you with a
centralise place to record and share your work and those of your
collaborators Help to demystify what you do: Why do you do what you
do? Why does it matter to you? Why should it matter to anyone else?
Funders are increasingly mandating a knowledge mobilization plan as
part of your work
21. Things to keep in mind if you do decide to blog Be clear
about what your blog is for Regular updates are important
Multi-authors blogs are OK Blog from a first person perspective
500-1500 words in length Casual in tone Use Twitter, Facebook
LinkIn to drive traffic to your blog Include pictures, videos and
audios Interactive comments should be encouraged but moderated
Decide how controversial do you want to be Most importantly: Blog
because YOU want to!
22. Philip H. Mai, M.A., J.D. Research & Communications
Manager Dalhousie Social Media Lab Projects & Communications
Manager Norman Newman Centre for Entrepreneurship Knowledge
Translation in the Age of Social Media: How to Build and Maintain
an Effective Scholarly & Professional Presence @phmai Thank
you! Questions?
23. Twitter: @phmai Wired Academia Project: Recent publications
Gruzd, A., & Goertzen, M. (2013). Wired Academia: Why Social
Science Scholars Are Using Social Media. The 46th Hawaii
International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS): 3332-3341,
DOI: 10.1109/HICSS.2013.614 Gruzd, A., Staves, K., Wilk, A. (2012).
Connected Scholars: Examining the Role of Social Media in Research
Practices of Faculty using the UTAUT model. Computers in Human
Behavior 28 (6), 2340-2350, DOI: j.chb.2012.07.004 Gruzd, A.,
Staves, K., and Wilk, A. (2011). Tenure and Promotion in the Age of
Online Social Media. Proceedings of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Conference, October
9-13, 2011, New Orleans, LA, USA. DOI:
10.1002/meet.2011.14504801154 SocialMediaLab.ca